Criterion

As salaam alaikum beautiful human beings and lovely jinn, it is vital like ital that we have a standard that we live by, live up to and judge things by, Allah is The Best of Judges.We need a model that is timelessly constant but evolving, according to how our individual consciousness improves and becomes closer to Allah. This sounds deep and it is deep but simple at the same times.

I know, I seem like I am full of contradictions but time will show that sometimes contradictions are in fact complimentary and not in separate camps but are two sides of the same coin, another story.Standard and structure are not the same but are related. Everything good comes via structure and having a good standard and that includes a standard in food.Allah mentions the fact that The Quran, The Sacred Book of The Muslims, is the standard, the Criterion.

CHAPTER SURAH 25, AL FURQAN, ACTUALLY MEANS THE CRITERION.“In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.1. Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His servant, to be a warning to humanity.2. He to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, who took to Himself no son, who never had a partner in His kingship; who created everything and determined its measure.3. And yet, instead of Him, they produce for themselves gods that create nothing, but are themselves created; that have no power to harm or benefit themselves; and no power over life, death, or resurrection.4. Those who disbelieve say, “This is nothing but a lie that he made up, and others have helped him at it.” They have committed an injustice and a perjury.5. And they say, “Tales of the ancients; he wrote them down; they are dictated to him morning and evening.”

DIET FADS AND FASHIONS

Where this standard comes into play in regards to nutrition, is that diets fads and fashions come and go. Many years ago I was asked to do makeup for a woman called Judy Mazel who wrote the Beverly Hills diet, it was a diet where you ate nothing but pineapple for ten days and then introduced other foods into your life. Hmmm I was very young at the time but wise enough know that was not right.Since them I had seen people get sick on the Atkins diet, and be admitted to hospital because of too much protein and damaging their kidneys. I have been pork free for over 30 years, I have been pescartarian, vegetarian and vegan and alhmdulilah thank God, and I am now a Muslim and have the best example in Prophet Muhammad (saw) of how to live the life , including how to eat. He had the most balanced of temperaments according to one of his wives, Aiesha (ra). Temperaments we will go into that soon

in shaa Allah.

MY PERSONAL DIET STAGES

After being vegan/vegetarian for a year I embraced Islam, ate too much meat, wheat and cultural food and put on weight. Started studying nutrition and qualified and lost 2 stones, that’s 12 kilos.I realised that Muslim cultural eating is almost as bad as non Muslim except the absence of pork, road kill and alcohol, Muslims can and do eat pretty much everything else. This is why Muslim nations are some of the highest in the statics for most obese nationsAmerica of course is right there at the top of most obese nation following by a number of small Pacific Islands. Then there’s is the Middle East. Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. 75 percent of these countries’ population is overweight and well over a third is considered obese.Common culture belief has until recently associated being overweight with wealth but that is now not the case. All over the world, malnutrition, processed food is often a cheap alternative to whole grains and vegetables.KNOWLEDGE OF QURANIC FOODSWe say we are Muslim, we think we are Mu’min, some of us even think we are Muhsin but how many of us really have Islamic knowledge of foods mentioned in the Quran and the sunnah of prophet Muhammad , salah lahu alaihi wa salem, in his diet and his eating patterns ? We should follow the Sunnah in allah areas not just praying and dressing.Food is the fuel that gives us energyWith knowledge of foods that Allah has mentioned in the Quran and our love and understanding that Allah has mentioned and given us these foods for our benefit we are empowered.When we start eating these foods in obedience and love of Allah, the sky has no limit in sha Allah.You will make yourself sick eating mainly cakes, chocolate and coffee. You can even stay thin on that kind of diet because it is full of sugar and stimulants but you are heading towards being a skinny diabetic.

Brothers eating steaks every week but not doing a strenuous day’s work are heading for heart attacks. This is according to classical scholar Ibn Jawziyyah (ra) and science.

In shaa’Allah over the last three posts, I have communicated with you the need for each one of us to acquire knowledge of the Islamic way of eating and the need to know about foods mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, I would love in shaa Allah to hear your feed back.